A lift truck is already known which presents a hydrostatic axle comprising a frame, two displacement members coupled to motors and a mast for handling mounted to pivot with respect to said frame, this axle comprising two drive assemblies, right- and left-hand, each comprising a hydrostatic motor and a brake and being coupled to one of said displacement members.
In this known lift truck, the hydrostatic motors are rapid motors, necessarily associated with speed reducers, the assembly being sheltered in a voluminous housing, itself rigidly fixed to the thermal engine for driving the hydraulic pump supplying the hydrostatic motors. The handling mast is pivotally mounted directly with respect to the frame of the truck.
This construction is heavy, expensive and does not allow simple assembly, either of the axle itself or of the mast, on the lift truck.
It is an object of the invention to overcome these drawbacks by eliminating the speed reducers thanks to the adoption of slow hydrostatic motors and by providing the pivotal assembly of the mast with respect to the axle itself.